Poisonous
by Observer123
Summary: "Kitty, being angry on someone is like drinking poison and then expecting the other person to die! You have to stop this, NOW!" Dudley P.
1. A friendly bartender

**-So that´s a new story that I created together with lunar silver. I hope you like it. :D-**

"Shake shake sh-sh-shake, yeah!" called Dudley. He was holding a cocktail shaker in his hands and put his heart and soul into shaking. It was his mother´s birthday and he was commanded to be behind the bar and make cocktails. Not because his mother was too greedy to hire a professional barkeeper, it was because Dudley somehow had a God-given talent for making drinks and cocktails.

He was so good that he once thought about quitting at T.U.F.F. and beginning as a barkeeper. And even if any bar would have hired him with arms wide open he rejected this thought again. "Avoid to make your hobby to a job… you could start hating it." That was his motto.

So he just did that on special occasions, like some T.U.F.F. parties. But one thing annoyed him about being the barkeeper. He couldn´t participate celebrating. And today that was really annoying for him. All his relatives and friends, even Kitty Keswick and the chief which he had invited, were in the backyard and drank and talked and he had to stay inside.

So he decided to prepare some drinks and bring them out to at least see some of the others.  
"That´s the last one." He filled a champagne glass with an orange liquid and sat a slice of lime on the brim of it.  
"Ha! Dudley-surprise."

"What´s up D..D..Dudley?" shouted Keswick who just entered the house through the back door.  
"Not much Keswick. Just mixing some drinks. What can I do for you? Want a drink?"  
"Yep! Another M..M..Manhattan!"

Dudley took a new glass and various bottles out of the cupboard and began as fast as he could to mix the different ingredients together. For an untrained eye it just looked like that Dudley was whirling around the bottles without knowing what he did. But he knew exactly what he did. After he finished the drink he handed it to Keswick.

"Thanks." Keswick sipped at the drink. "Hmm… Dudley that is the b..b..best Manhattan I´ve ever drank."  
"Thank you." Said Dudley while he put the prepared glasses on a tray and walked with them into the backyard.

"COCKTAILS!" The people screamed as they saw Dudley. And they almost knocked him down as they tried to grab one of the cocktail of the tray. "Whoa! One after the other!" laughed Dudley and looked around, searching for someone. And after a while he found her.

Kitty Katswell, a tall tanned cat girl and also his partner at T.U.F.F., stood beside his boss the chief, a little flea, and talked about the party as Dudley came to them.  
"Hey guys, what´s up?"

"From where did you come? I thought that you were not here!" said Kitty jokingly.  
"That´s the barkeeper`s destiny, Kitty. Always there but never really in the middle of the events." Added the chief laughing.

"Hahaha guys." Meant Dudley sarcastically. "You ridicule about me but drink my stuff."  
"Because it´s good stuff. That´s also the reason why I always ask you to be the barkeeper when the supreme command visits us." Explained the chief. Dudley remembered one of these evenings in the chief´s house clearly.

Even if he doubted that the chief did. These little 'visits' which were of course top secret always followed the same format. The supreme command came in and then they got hammered… really hard. Dudley is always the only sober one in the whole group.

Then on the next morning when Dudley carried the drunken bodies away and cleaned up the mess the chief always gets a call in which someone assures him new funds for T.U.F.F. A strange kind of showing the supreme command that this T.U.F.F. branch deserved the funding but sometimes the end justifies the means.

"Well." Interrupted the chief Dudley who remembered one of these evenings. "I have to shake some hands here. But I think you two can have a good time without me." He turned around and left the two alone.

"One day you have to tell me what happens at these supreme commands visits" giggled Kitty and watched the chief walking.  
"Maybe… But when the chief retires and you become the new chief I have to tell you anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Kitty asked surprised.  
"Oh… I think I said to much…"  
"No, no, no. Now you have to tell me!" She ordered friendly but interested about what Dudley said. He looked furtively to the left side and then to the right to make sure that nobody listened to them.

"But you haven´t heard that from me, okay? Well the chief is thinking about retiring and he said, of course just between him and me, that if he retires he would appoint you to the new chief.  
So… Congratulations!" Dudley wasn´t allowed telling her that but he just loved it to make her happy.

"Wow" said Kitty with a grin frozen in her face. She almost had pounced at Dudley and kissed him because she was so happy. Being the chief was here dream since she has launched her career at T.U.F.F.. And finally this dream should become true.

"Kitty?" asked Dudley who was kind of afraid of Kitty because she just stood there grinning.  
"I could kiss you Dudley."  
"Feel free to do that."  
"Maybe later. But I have to congratulate your mother first. So see you later."

Kitty gave Dudley a ambiguously wink and walked towards Peg who was surrounded by persons who wanted to offer her congratulations. Dudley was back on his way into the kitchen to mix some new cocktails as he was stopped by a relative of him.

It was his uncle Roger who was Dudley´s favorite uncle because he was just cool. The guy was a adventurer and globetrotter who visited almost every country in the world. Through the amount of stories and funny anecdotes to tell he was the center of every party.  
And also he always gave Dudley cool things as Christmas presents.  
"Hey Dud! Could you do me a favor?"  
"Everything you want, Roger."

"Our relatives over there." Roger pointed at a group of dogs which stood in a circle and talked about him. "don´t believe that there´s a cocktail which is named after me. The dusty Roger. So could you maybe… mix some?"

"I don´t know…"  
"Just google it! You´ll find it." He patted Dudley on the shoulder and walked back into his group.  
Dudley just shrugged and walked back into the kitchen, pulled out his smartphone and searched for the dusty Roger.

"Ha! Unbelievable! I need whiskey, vodka and a hand of dust! That has to taste awful!" But if it was his uncle´s wish he would fulfill it. There was just one problem. Dudley had whiskey, he had vodka but he had no dust! His mom cleaned up the house very carefully, there was just no dust in this house. "Dust…Dust…" he repeated pensively.

Meanwhile there was someone who watched the house out of a van. It was a rat that sat on the driver seat with a pair of binoculars in his hands. "Why am I not invited. I mean we were together for a short time... okay we broke up but in a good way! And I mean it´s me, Vermenious Snaptrap! Who wouldn´t like me on a party?!" said the rat.

"Everyone." Meant the little grey shrew sitting next to him.  
"Shut up Larry and get the Ostes-machina!"  
"Really?! You call it Earthquake-machine, just in Latin?"  
"Shut up and get it out! We destroy their house, nobody is in there. That will teach them a lesson!"

Back in the kitchen Dudley still stood there and thought about dust until Kitty came into the kitchen.  
"What´s wrong Dudley?"  
"I need some dust, for a cocktail. But I have no idea where I get some."  
"Okaaay… I will not ask what kind of cocktail. But… Have you searched on the attic?" she suggested.

"Good idea!" He rushed upstairs and opened the little trapdoor on the ceiling of the first floor. And as he climbed up the little ladder which unfolds when you open the door he found a lot of dust there.  
"If Mom annoys me I should send her up her! It would take her hours to clean up this mess!"

"You finished her?" asked Kitty who followed him "It´s really creepy up here!"  
"Okay I have…" Dudley had no chance to finish the sentence because the house suddenly  
began to shake.

"A earthquake?! Here?!" screamed Kitty.  
"We have to get out of here!" They both turned around and ran as fast as they could towards the kitchen. They had to get out of here! The earthquake became heavier every second. Soon the house would collapse.

Dudley was the first one in the kitchen. He stopped hectically and looked around. Kitty was gone. She was in front of him but where was she now? He finally saw her laying on the floor of the living room that was connect with the kitchen through doorframe.

"KITTY! GET UP!" Dudley heard an ugly sound from the doorframe. It would collapse in a few seconds and then Kitty would have no other way to get out. He jumped into it and pressed his body with all his power against it.

"KITTY! COME ON!" he shouted at her. She jumped on her feet and ran past Dudley through the back door. Dudley wanted to join her but now without somebody pressing against the doorframe it collapsed. A giant mass of debris fall on him and trapped him in the trembling house.

Kitty saw it, turned around and tried to help him by pulling on his arms. Also Keswick risked coming into the house. He was worried about his friends and wanted to see if they already left the death trap.

"Damn D..D..Dudley" he screamed and helped Kitty. But even with help Dudley didn´t move. Not even a bit.  
"Guys, it´s useless! You have to get out of here." coughed Dudley.  
"NOT WITHOUT YOU!" cried Kitty and pulled even stronger.

Dudley knew what to do now because he had one of these moments when you see everything clear. He had just to be honest. That would do everything. "Kitty, I love you." He said sternly what made Kitty just stood there frozen. "Keswick get her out!" Keswick nodded and didn´t hesitate.

He grabbed Kitty´s arm and pulled her through the backdoor of the house. Right after they got out the house gave way to the brutal force of gravity. It was unbelievable loud and the dust spread like a shockwave into all directions.

"DUDLEY!" cried Kitty after she was able to break out of her state of shock and ran to the place where the doorframe stood which was now just an almost one meter high pile of rubble. She began to dig and she almost dug her hands bloody until she found him.

Dudley´s eyes were closed and he was covered with dust and blood.  
Kitty couldn´t hear him breath so she laid her fingers on his wrist.  
"Oh god thanks… A pulse! A PULSE! He´s alive!"

Right after that, nobody saw the black van in this moment driving away.


	2. Domiciliary visit

"Breathing. Regular. EKG. Stable. Pupillary light reflex…" The Doctor took a little flashlight out of his breast pocket. He opened one of Dudley´s eyes by pulling his eyelids apart with his fingers and lighted his eyeball. The pupil became immediately smaller. "Good, you are not brain-dead, Mr. Puppy. That is a really good sign." The Doctor stepped away from the bed in which Dudley lay and noted something on the clipboard he held in his hand.

Dudley was laid finally after a nine hour emergency surgery in a hospital bed. He was patched up as good as the surgeons were able to do but it was still unsure if Dudley would wake up again. His injuries were just too serious and he lost a lot of blood in the short time he lay under the tons of debris.

"Actually you should not be alive anymore. It is a miracle…" The Doctor left the room and walked out in the hallway. A nervous, tired and tensed Kitty Katswell sat on a chair beside the door and waited for something to happen. "Doctor!" she said surprised. "What´s going on? How is he?"

"And you are…?"  
"Kitty Katswell! I´m his partner!"  
"Partner? You mean wife or fiancée?"

"No!" replied Kitty who was getting angrier because the Doctor held back information. "I´m his partner at T.U.F.F.!"  
"Hm… I am not allowed…" the Doctor stopped as he realized that Kitty would beat him up if he would finish the sentence like he wanted to finish it so he changed his mind.

"Not to tell you that, hehe… Well, Mr. Puppy is alive but even if his vital signs are stable now I am still not sure if he will wake up again. His brain was damaged pretty bad. And let us not speak about his left arm. Anyway, even if he survives and wakes up he would maybe severely dependent."

The massage hit Kitty like a hammer. She sat back down on her chair and stared at the ground. A coma! That was almost the same as being dead just worse for everyone around. If somebody dies the people around that person are able to accept that but if the person is in a coma the people get feed with this bittersweet false hope.

Kitty already had no more false hope, her grandpa once fell into a coma and even if she the doctors said that he won´t wake up she always had this hope. On the day he died she swore to herself that she won´t go through this again if someone close to her falls in a coma. Right now, she just felt guilty about that. What if she was faster or if she hadn´t stumbled or if she and Keswick pulled harder …would Dudley be still okay then?

"I would appreciate that you will not tell anyone that I divulged this piece of information to you? I cannot risk it to get sued again… It would be the seventh time… this month" Said the Doctor nervously grinning and disappeared like a ninja in a white coat in the hallways of the hospital.

"Hey K..K..Kitty." said Keswick who came from the same direction in which the ninja doc went away. "How i..i..is he?"  
"The Doctor says that he is in a coma… he will maybe never wake up."  
"Damn!" shouted Keswick angry. "I kind of s..s..see that coming. I mean as the house collapsed…"

Kitty began to cry what cut Keswick short.  
"It´s my fault! I was an idiot and stumbled! If I were faster…"  
"Kitty, n..n..no! It wasn´t your fault! It´s the fault of the one who m..m..made the earthquake!"  
"What do you mean with made?" sobbed Kitty.

"An earthquake is a phenomena which o..o..occur on big areas. But they are not s..s..so local. Someone had g..g..generated it!"  
"Who!" asked Kitty. Her guilt and sadness turned suddenly into anger.  
"I don´t k..k..know. But I suspect one of the usual suspects. The chameleon, Dr. Rabies and Madam Catastrophe or the good old Snaptrap. Maybe you ask one of t..t..them."

"No matter who I´ll find the one who killed Dudley!"  
"He isn´t dead K..K..Kitty! He still has a chance! Don´t give him up!" corrected Keswick.  
"I know but I will avenge him. No matter what it cost."

"What do you mean with a..a..avenge?! And I say it a..a..again isn´t dead!" repeated Keswick who already had a bad suspicion about what Kitty would do. But she was already on her way out of the hospital. Kitty wanted to let them pay for every drop of blood Dudley lost and would let them suffer like Dudley suffered.

"A coma would be too nice for them!" she thought and already planned what she would do with the culprit in her mind. As Kitty jumped into the T.U.F.F. mobile she kicked the gas like it had hurt Dudley. Her plan was to get through the list of villains Keswick enumerated.  
Her first aim was the chameleon's house. But she needed to collect some stuff first. You can´t avenge someone without good preparation.

Usually all villains of Petropolis were mostly harmless. For example they were pretty easy to find, all villains are findable in the phonebook or in the yellow pages in the category evil villains. Except the chameleon who was also findable in the category 'pest control'. They never did more than some simple scams or robberies and of course they never harmed someone.

Kitty began with her time as a T.U.F.F. agent to believe that the villains didn´t even want to harm someone... except you try to prevent them from their crimes. But an assassination? Very untypical. What made the deed even more terrible. Snaptrap who was meanwhile in the D.O.O.M HQ suspected nothing.

He sat on the big table in the main-hall and watched Larry who fought desperately against the sharks in the shark-tank, still thinking that he just destroyed the house.  
"Sharks, sharks, sharks!" he cheered the sharks on.

"Boss! Boss!" Shouted Ollie, the british opossum and Snaptraps right hand, with a newspaper in his hand. "Look!" Snaptrap grabbed it and read through the main-article. _'Earthquake destroyed T.U.F.F. agent´s house. On person deadly hurt.' _Snaptrap almost spit the coffee out which he always drank while he watched Larry fighting. "Deadly hurt?! Who?"

"If the correctness of my sources is still given. What I suppose. It is Dudley Puppy himself."  
"Oh damn… oh no…"  
"That is not even the worst piece of news." Added Ollie with his strong british accent.  
"What could be worse than that?" screamed Snaptrap intimidated.

"Well. Agent Katswell is bloody angry about that…" Ollie was interrupted because Snaptrap just fainted. The connection of the words Katswell and angry was enough to scare him to death.

Never make a woman angry. That was a life lesson the Chameleon should now learn even if it wasn´t the chameleon who made Kitty angry. Nevertheless she already parked the car in front of his house.  
"Here we are!" Kitty got out of the car and walked to the door of the rock shaped house. Instead of knocking at the door she just kicked the door in.

In the house the Chameleon sat on his couch and looked shocked at the door that flew in his direction. He wasn´t able to dodge the door so it hit him right into the face. "Aww…" he moaned and held his hands against his nose which was bleeding heavily. "My nose!"

"Your nose won´t be the only thing that will hurt." She grabbed him by the color and lifted him up with one hand.  
Kitty was really strong even she doesn´t looked like that.  
"Hey, I done nothing! You can´t arrest me!"

"I´m not her to arrest you." She said with an evil smile and put out a knife which she led slowly but determinedly towards the Chameleon's throat.  
"Please, don´t kill me." He cried. Kitty wasn´t moved by his tears. No, instead of showing some empathy she rammed the knife into his left leg and spun it around. The Chameleon screamed terribly in pain.  
"That depends on if you did it or not! If you did it, this will be just a little foretaste of what I will do to you!"

"I have no idea what you´re talking about!"  
"Don´t lie to me!" she shouted and gave his other leg the same treatment. Warm blood ran down her hands. She pulled the knife out of the wound and pressed it on his throat but now harder than before. If she pressed the knife a little harder into the skin of the chameleon it would rip and the blood would splash towards Kitty. Because that is what happens is you cut a carotid artery.

"You destroyed the Puppy´s house, yesterday! You sent Dudley into that coma! Admit it!"  
"What no! I did nothing. I have an alibi! I robbed a jewelry store! Look there!" He pointed at a pile of gems lying in the corner of his house. "Let me go!" Kitty threw the Chameleon into the same corner and cleaned the blade of her knife with a tissue.

"Damn Katwell, what was that?!" shouted the Chameleon angry.  
"Hey, I won´t kill you but that doesn't mean that I will not hurt you. So you better answer my questions! Who destroyed the Puppy´s house?"

"I have no idea, but maybe I could tell you something…"  
"Speak!" ordered Kitty sternly and kicked against the chameleon´s leg, right on the spot where she had rammed the knife in.  
"Awww, shit! Doctor Rabies built some kind of… aww… earthquake machine lately. I wanted to buy it for the evil shopping channel. That´s all!" he panted weakly.

"Why should I believe that?"  
"Do you have another choice? You better ask him! I can´t tell you more."

Kitty turned away from the chameleon and walked without any more word out of the door. The last thing she heard was the chameleon shouting after her.  
"Hey Katswell, a word of advice. Next time, ask first before you torture someone!"


	3. Just a signature

The long white hallways, the lively activity, the smell of disinfectant. These were just some things that Snaptrap hated about hospitals. But the thing he hated the most was that he remembered every single injury he ever had.

And now he just stood on one of these hallways with a bunch of flowers in his hands. It weren´t the nicest or prettiest flowers, they were not even real, but it was the gesture that counts. At least that´s what everyone said.

"Can I help you, Sir?" a nurse next to him asked. He must have looked very disorientated because it sounded like the nurse was unsure if he was a patient or a just visitor.  
"Yes I´m searching for Dudley Puppy. He should be somewhere around here."

"Puppy…Puppy." The nurse drummed pensively with a pencil on her clipboard. "Oh yes! Puppy. Room number 86. Over there." She pointed at the room next to Snaptrap. On the little tag next to the door even Dudley´s name was printed.

"Oh… yeah. Thank you." Snaptrap turned away from the nurse and walked through the door. In there a terrible sight greeted him. Dudley lay in his bed and was covered with plastic tubes. Most of them were infusions which led to his arms but one big lead into his mouth. The feeding tube. Snaptrap laid the flowers on the table next to Dudley´s bed, grabbed a chair and sat down.

"Wow agent Puppy… You really look bad." Snaptrap laughed and his laughter echoed in the empty room. But he fell silent again fast and looked with sad eyes on Dudley.

"I just want you to know that this is my fault. I let this building collapse. I didn´t want that. Please believe me this shouldn´t happen. I thought nobody would be in the house… I´m sorry." Snaptrap stood up from his chair and walked around the bed.

"Why am I telling this to you anyway? You can´t hear me. And maybe you´re already dead."  
"No not dead yet." Said a voice from behind that made Snaptrap spun around startled. It was the Doctor that also spoke to Kitty. And he somehow seemed to appear out of nothing.

"How long did you stand there?"  
"Long enough." The Doctor walked past Snaptrap without deign a look at him. He bent over Dudley and used his flashlight to check Dudley´s pupillary light reflex again. "Good morning agent Puppy. Enjoy another wonderful day on this planet."

"He´s still alive?"  
"Yes. He is. His brain is completely functional. But his left arm doesn´t look good." The doctor stroked worriedly through his hair.  
"And how is his heart?" Snaptrap received a confused look from the Doctor.

"His heart?! His heart is okay but it doesn't matter."  
"I thought that a person is dead when his heart stops."

"Per definition maybe but this is nonsense of course. You can replace a heart. You can transplant it or replace it with some kind of pump… Okay maybe the medical research has not managed to build a working artificial heart, but they will. Give them some time.

Anyway, you are not able to do the same with a brain. How could you even replace the center of our emotions, out thoughts, our whole being? Tell me Mr. Snaptrap." The doctor sounded a bit angry but maybe about it was just because of Snaptrap´s stupidity.

"I don´t really know how…"  
"You see? So Snaptrap. Mind if I call you like that?" Snaptrap nodded confused of the coming change of the subject. This Doctor was somehow suspicious for him but he didn´t know why. It was the way he spoke and looked like.

The guy was some kind of chimpanzee with a pair of these nerd glasses on his nose. And of course he wore the obligatory white doctor´s coat. Also his serve deep dark voice that reminded Snaptrap on his math teacher.

"Okay, Snaptrap, why are you here. It is a bit dangerous to visit your victims, or is it not? And lying down a full confession in presents of someone else? You know that I am a potential witness?"  
"I haven´t saw you as I entered the room. And it never was my intention to hurt him. Never!"  
"You do not have to explain that to me." Meant the Doctor baldly.

"So will call the cops?"  
"No. I am saving lifes. I am not helping to end them. There is someone else…"  
"What do you mean?" Before the Doctor could answer Keswick opened the door and interrupted the conversation. "Snaptrap?! What a..a..are you doing here?!"

"He will tell it to you. And now both of you, leave the room. I have to check something." Ordered the doctor and almost pushed them both out of the room. Back on the hallway tried Snaptrap to justify himself by stammering. "I..I..I"

"Are you crazy?! What if agent Katswell comes to v..v..visit him. She will kill you!"  
"What? Wait, you know…"  
"Of course I know! What do you think who told Ollie and thus you that D..D..Dudley is here?" shouted Keswick angrily.

"Why? Why would you protect me?"  
"I´m not protecting you. I´m protecting a..a..agent Katswell. You have no idea w..w..what she is able to do… and she maybe also not."

"And what now?" asked Snaptrap who was anxious and bewildered.  
"You b..b..better hide. Hide good. And p..p..pray. Pray that agent Puppy will wake up before she will find you. And she will find you. That´s just a question of time." Whispered Keswick in a creepy manner.

Snaptrap tried to stay calm but a voice deep inside of him screamed. "RUN DAMN RUN!"  
Keswick was right, if agent Katswell, the number one T.U.F.F. agent, gets him his days were counted. "You better g..g..go now!" Keswick entrusted this to him and walked away. He didn´t want to get seen with Snaptrap.

"He´s right. I better…" Snaptrap turned around and wanted to finish his sentence while also walking away but he missed Peg Puppy who bumped directly into him.  
"Uh… sorry I… Verminious?"  
"Peg?"

"What are you doing here?"  
"I…" Snaptrap couldn´t just tell her that he was here to ease his conscience. And above all he couldn´t tell her that it was him who destroyed her house and put her son into that coma.  
"I know why you´re here! You visit Dudley." She beamed.

"Uhm.. yes" Snaptrap lied.  
"That´s so nice of you! Oh and I´m sorry that you had no time to come to the party. Still problem with the kidney stones?"

"Kidney stones?" Snaptrap had no idea what Peg was talking about but he had no problem with his kidneys. On the contrary his kidneys were in an excellent condition.  
"Yes. You sent me that letter in which you explained that to me. So are you alright?"

"Uhm…yes. I went to a specialist and now it´s better." Snaptrap never sent a letter to Peg, he was sure about that. It felt like somebody wanted him to stay away from the party. But who?  
Even if that was an interesting question Snaptrap had no time to investigate into this direction. Kitty was the one who he should worry about.

"Well, Vermi. The Doctor wanted to talk to me so…"  
"I am already here." Said the Doctor who seemed to appear out of nowhere again. Slowly but steady this was getting creepy.  
"Okay Doctor. How is my little sweety? Tell me Doc."

"He is still alive. But his left arm had multiple fractures. We tried to fix it and we first thought we had succeeded but serve thrombosis formed in his arms. We first tried to treat them with blood thinner but that had no use."

"What is your point Doctor… uhm…"  
"Doctor Amid Savors" he said while he pulled a clipboard out of his white coat. "And my point is that the fractures together with these thrombosis giving us just one choice. We have to amputate the arm of your son."

"What?" Peg asked unbelieving. "His arm? Is there no other choice?"  
"I would not suggest it if there is another choice. If we do nothing this would lead to a blood poisoning. And that would lead to his death."

Doctor Savors held the clipboard and a pen towards her. "Your son isn´t able to make this decision so you have to." Peg reached slowly for the pencil. Is it right to decide something so life-changing without even asking the person? But in this case the person was in a coma. Asking him wouldn´t be so easy.

And if she doesn´t do it Dudley would die. But when he wakes up again would he be angry on her. Those were the questions that rushed through her head as her fingers clasped the pen.

"Mrs. Puppy I don´t want to urge you to do that but we can just prepare anything if you sign here."  
Peg pressed the pen on the paper and said. "I´m his mother. I´ll do anything that will keep him alive! Even if he maybe hates me for that." Then she signed the documents fast and shaky.

"Thank you." Doctor Savors turned around and walked into Dudley´s room again while Peg stood on the hallway and thought. "What have I done."  
Snaptrap somehow knew what she thought and hugged her. "You done the right thing" he whispered sympathetically to her while she burst into tears in his arms.


	4. Arms grow again, right?

"Please, Keswick you have talked for more than an hour now. Shut up. Please. PLEASE!" Dudley screamed. Of course he screamed it not out, he still lay in this coma, but he screamed with his inner voice. He knew that he was in a coma, that was even for him clear.

Mainly because everyone around him said the word coma and because he couldn´t move. But Dudley imagined being in a coma was more like sleeping. For example you have a car crash and then you wake up again months later. But that… that was like hell. He couldn´t move, say or do anything.

He couldn´t even go to the bathroom what was the most embarrassing part of that. What he could do was hearing what was going on around him and screaming into himself. Keswick´s permanent visit didn´t made the whole thing better.

Of course it was really nice of him to come and talk with Dudley but everything what Keswick talked about was so boring. He told him yesterday more than a half hour how to water your rhododendron right because if you water it wrong… a disaster would happen.

Luckily there were of course some rare interesting things that Keswick told him. About the chief and his retirement plans for example. Keswick said that there was almost nothing that could prevent him from making Kitty to his successor. "Good news. Kitty´s dream would finally become true." He thought as he heard that.

The nurses with their cold hands and their rough attitude also didn´t make his visit nicer. They just did their job of course but sometimes Dudley felt like he was just object for them and no longer a living being. The strange Doctor was interesting for Dudley besides Keswick´s stories about the chief. He still came every day and checked his vital signs.

Amid or something like that was his name. Really a strange guy but also the only one of the staff who treated him like a person. Not like a piece of dead meat. Dudley always had the feeling that he materialized himself out of nothing. He never heard steps or something coming to his bed, really nothing that would be a sign of somebody coming. He was surprised every time when he felt the cold fingers on his eyelid.

And then these strange things he always said. "You should not be alive Mr. Puppy" That was like he was kind of against it that Dudley lay in this bed. And in a contrary to that he said every day. "Have another nice day on this planet." That guy really scared him and Dudley could just hope that he wouldn´t press a pillow on his head one day.

"Well D..D..Dudley, that´s all you should know about how to tie a t..t..tie. I have to go now. Some people have to w..w..work." Keswick patted Dudley´s shoulder laughing and then left the room.  
"Great, he haven´t told me when Kitty will visit me." That was the only thing Dudley was looking forward to in Keswick´s speech. Kitty hadn´t visited him yet and that made him kind of sad.

She was his partner and he confessed his true feelings for her in this house. But maybe she just didn´t share the feelings he had for her? Nevertheless a visit out of decency would be the least. "If I could stand up or at least talk to her. I could…" The known cold hands touching his eyelid interrupted his thought.

The Doctor again. "Well, Mr. Puppy. Still nothing changed. I would usually wish you a nice day but not today. As you may heard or not… Well under the assumption that you can hear what is going on around you. We have to take of the lower part of your left arm."

"PARDON?!" Asked Dudley unheard.  
"Your surgery will begin in almost an hour so I will inject an anesthetic syringe."  
A weak pain flooded Dudley´s arm which was replaced by a numb feeling that spread from his arm. He felt immediately calmer. When he was seconds before like "YOU WANT TO CUT OF MY FREAKING ARM?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" he now was like "Hey, it´s okay. Arms grow again."

"A nurse will bring you soon into the operating room. A coworker of mine and good friend will remove your arm. He is a good surgeon but nevertheless… good luck." And like he materialized he dematerialized again. Dudley was laying there and the last thoughts before he slept away belonged Kitty.

"Kitty… I wonder what she is doing. Is she okay?"  
She was okay but Doctor Rabies who lay blood spitting in front of her was anything but okay.  
"Tell me have you done it?" She kicked him with her pointed boot into his ribs.  
"Why can´t you just believe me? I haven´t done this. I have an alibi." He coughed.

"Why should I believe you?" Kitty asked and kicked him again.  
"What the heck is going on here?!" shouted an angry voice behind Kitty. Madame Catastrophe stood with two filled shopping bags in the door.

"That isn´t your business Catastrophe! I warn you, get off! NOW!"  
"Not my business, huh?" Catastrophe threw the bags out of her hands and ran towards Kitty. Almost in front of Kitty she tried to jump on her. Catastrophe wanted to pull her down but Kitty reacted faster.

In the style of an old western cowboy she pulled out her gun and shot from her hip directly into Catastrophe´s kneecap. Like a stone she fell on the ground and reached in pain for her knee.  
"Sorry, Catstrophe. But I warned you."

Kitty walked to her bleeding enemy and kneed down next to her. "Maybe you´re a bit more talkative. Tell me. Who destroyed the Puppy´s house? Who sent Dudley in this coma?"  
"He´s in a coma?" Even if she was surprised and her knee hurt like hell, Catastrophe grinned.

"Wrong answer." Sighed Kitty. She stood up again and was about to kick Catastrophe into her stomach but a hand grabbed her foot.  
"Please. Leave her alone. I´ll tell you anything." Begged Rabies who held her foot. He must crawled to her even if he was covered with deep bleeding cuts.

The blood trail that he left on the floor proofed this theory. That must have been terrible pains and Kitty asked herself why he done that.  
"It depends on what you´ll tell me."

"Okay, right away, I don´t destroyed the Puppy´s house and neither did Catastrophe."  
"O really? You had this earthquake machine!"  
"Exactly! I had it" Rabies stood up and tried to stand on his weak legs. "I sold the device a week ago. To Birdbrain! Ask him if you want to know something more. He´s your man."

He walked past Kitty and helped Catastrophe gently to stand up. "Are you okay?" he asked her worried.  
"Under the circumstances I´m shockingly nice." Catastrophe forced a smile on her  
face and added. "It´s just my leg."

"Really? Try to stand. I´ll take a look." While she was standing on her healthy leg Rabies eyed her knee. "That looks bad. Damn Katswell. What´s gotten into you?!"  
"Hey, she attacked me!" Kitty justified herself.  
"Of course. She also attacks me. That are the hormones!"

"Hormones?! Is she…?"  
"Yeah. I´m pregnant! Do you have a problem with that?" Called Catastrophe irritated in.  
"No, I…I didn´t know…I" stammered Kitty. That explained why Rabies did everything to prevent her from kicking Catastrophe´s stomach. He must be the father of the unborn child.

"What do you think why you haven´t heard anything of me and Catastrophe lately? We´re out of the active business! We´re just build and sell stuff now! And we thought it would be safe." Rabies gave Kitty a really angry glare.

"Can I do something to…"  
"You done enough I think. Get off! NOW!" ordered Rabies. Kitty turned around and walked out of the storage hall that both call their home. It was an old hall somewhere in the harbor district. The sun already set and Kitty wandered confused to the T.U.F.F. car which she had parked nearby.

This was the first time she really thought that this whole thing maybe went too far. But that was just a little part of her. The greatest still wanted to repay blood with blood, broken bone with broken bone and coma with coma. So she just sat into the car and watched how the ocean swallowed the sun in a firework of colors.

"So Birdbrain is the next on my list and this list is getting shorter and shorter. Soon I´ll have this bastard if the bastard isn´t Birdbrain… Soon, Dudley. I will avenge you soon." Then she put her sunglasses on and started the engine, ready to remove the next and hopefully the last one from her list.


	5. A street, a way, a light

"Birdbrain. You little deviously fowl. Come out, come out wherever you are." called Kitty with subdued voice into the long hallway extending in front of her. With slow and careful steps she walked over the ground which was lighted with a dark blue light.

Bright enough to see the way and dark enough to overlook eventual traps. Traps were one of Birdbrain´s favorites, especially the one which were set off through stepping on a foot-operated switch on the ground. But the meters she already walked were quiet so Kitty was hopping that this wouldn´t change.

And oddly that happened. She opened the white door in front of here and entered the next room. Her hands shivered because of expectation. Birdbrain was the best hint so far and her gut feeling which was never wrong told her that he was the one. She wouldn´t let him get away with that. No captivities.

The hall she entered looked like some kind of meeting hall that was lighted by the neon tubes on the ceiling. On a solid birch table Birdbrain sat bend over some papers while his assistant Zippy flapped around his head.

"Sir, you don´t need a device to fly. You just have to believe."  
"Ha, believe." Laughed Birdbrain bitterly. "Believe can´t overcome the cruelness of gravity. But science can! I think you have watched the news lately?"

"To be honest Sir, no I haven´t"  
"The scientist proved the existence of the Higgs Boson. An elementary particle that supposedly causes the mass of all particles and so the gravity! My plan is to reverse this effect and use it to fly." Explained Birdbrain excited.

"And how, Sir?"  
"I still have no idea…"  
"Then I´m going to make some coffee." Sighed Zippy and was about to leave as Kitty interrupted the scene by raising her voice.  
"I´m sorry to interrupt this physics lesson but there is something we have to discuss Birdbrain."

"Oh Agent Katswell, I haven´t expected you and so I haven´t prepared anything. But that doesn´t matter. I´m sure I´ll find something for you. Muhahaha." Birdbrain threw his head back and laughed towards the ceiling. This got way too stupid for Kitty so she reacted fast.

She pulled her gun out and shot. Birdbrain´s laughter was immediately cut short and turned into a pained scream. Like a pile of laundry he collapsed and blood began to color the grey floor red.  
"Oh god Sir!" Zippy flew towards Birdbrain but Kitty caught her out of the air.

She looked smiling at the little bird in her claws and said. "I´ll deal with you later." Kitty walked beside Birdbrain whose face began to lose its color.  
"You come in here, shot me, threaten my employees… do you even have a reason for that?!" hissed Birdbrain from the ground with pain in his face.

"You killed… sent my Partner into a coma. You have to pay for that!"  
"I have no idea what you talking about." Meant Birdbrain.  
"Usually I would say wrong answer now and do something terrible to you but look at your chest."

Kitty pointed at a little hole in Birdbrains purple suit which dyed the surrounding cloth to a dark red color. "I think you´re running out of time. Don´t you want to ease your conscience before you… you know. Die."

Birdbrain answered her by spitting blood in her face. Kitty wiped away the mixture of blood and spit calmly, almost cold. "Okay, If you don´t do it because of yourself maybe you do it because of her." Kitty raised her hand in which she still held Zippy in a stranglehold. She eased this grab and lay he thumb on Zippy´s neck.

"Only a little move of my thumb and you two can share a body bag."  
"Please don´t…" Zippy wanted to beg for her life but prevented that by moving her thumb a bit what intimidated her.

"Okay, okay. But please leave her alone." Begged Birdbrain.  
"That depends on you. Why have you destroyed the Puppy´s house?"  
"Again, I haven´t done this! I…" Birdbrains breath became staccato and he fought to held his eyes open.

"Hey, stay awake and tell me what happened the day before yesterday!" Ordered Kitty while she snapped her fingers of her free hand in front of his face.  
"…I..I was here. Zippy can confirm that as true to you. We.. were.. here and thought about how we could destroy the bank without… using the earthquake machine."

"What do you mean with that!?"  
"T.U.F.F. took the device … away from us the day be… fore. This little guy called Keswick… was with them."

Kitty heart stopped. Birdbrain was also a wrong track? That couldn´t be. That would mean that she killed an innocent person. The inner voice in her became louder and finally drown out the headless voices in her that claimed revenge. 'I warned you a long time and now it´s too late. You done something you can´t rectify.' She let opened her hand and let Zippy go.

"Sir! No!" she screamed with her croaky voice.  
"Zippy there is a street, there is a way… there is a light. It´s so beautiful."  
"Don´t go into that light Sir!" Zippy cried tears into Birdbrains chest.

"There is standing something in that light. Smiling at me. Reaching its hand out for me."  
"Don´t take its hand!"  
"It´s not that I have a choice. It´s cold. So cold." Birdbrains eyes began to stare aimless to the ceiling and he literally breathed out his life.

Kitty backed away from the body and ran out of the door. She couldn´t stand the angry and disgusted looks from Zippy.

In the meantime Keswick was sitting beside Dudley´s bed and read for him out of the magazine 'Quantum physics today'.  
"The Higgs Boson Dudley! Do you know what that means?"  
"No and I don´t want to know it." Said Dudley with his inner voice. "Stop talking! Please!"

"Well I´ll explain you."  
"Great, there it goes!" Dudley tried to move somehow, he wanted to run away but it still had no use. "Can someone somehow end this torture?" His prayers were answered by two figures which sneaked into the room. One of it was walking with the aid of a stick.

"So here lies the person that can cause a whole lot of trouble without even moving his eyelid." Said the figure without the stick.  
"Rabies! Catastrophe! What are you doing here?!" Keswick jumped from his chair and tried to take a fighting position. But it looked more like he offered them a dance.

"Put your hands down, darling." Said Catastrophe who was helped on a chair by Rabies. "We´re not here to hurt you or him. We´re really just here to see him."  
"Because villains always visit their enemies when they´re sick." Retorted Keswick sarcastically.

"We wanted to see the reason why Katswell wanted to massacre us… Why is he missing an arm?!" asked Catastrophe while Rabies was eyeing Dudley unbelieving. It must have been especially weird for him to see his almost doppelganger lying in that bed. For him it was like looking into a mirror which is able to let your arm disappear.

"The Doctor said it was too destroyed to fix it. Poor Dudley that will be a shock for him if he wakes up."  
"That sounds hopefully. I saw a lot of comatose patients in my time as a doctor and all of them never woke up." Meant Rabies.

"You? A doctor?" asked Catastrophe surprised.  
"Of course not legally. But back in the Kosovo conflict I patched up soldiers from the battlefield. And I saw really much comatose patients."  
"I don´t dare asking on which side you were." Said Keswick.

"The side doesn´t matter for… I tried to safe lifes, not destroying them. And of course I haven´t participated ethnic cleansing."  
"That c..c..could be true." Keswick´s eye wandered towards Catastrophe´s knee. "Oh god, what h..h..happened?"

"Katswell happened!"  
"Oh g..g..god no…"  
"Yes." emphasize Catastrophe with emphatically. "A clear shot through my kneecap. This strange Doctor said that even it heals well I won´t be able to walk without this crutch here."

"I a..a..apologize in the name of agent Katswell. She just doesn´t k..k..know what she´s doing."  
"Another reason why we´re here. We try to understand. And now that I see him lying here in this pathetic condition…" Rabies shook his head instead of ending this sentence.

"You´re right, darling. Maybe I would have done the same. We just can hope that Birdbrain…"  
"Wait. You sent K..K..Kitty to Birdbrin?!" interrupted Keswick shocked.  
"That was the only way! She had killed us if we hadn´t spit out his name!" Rabies sounded guilty as he tried to justify what he done.

"We have to s..s..stop here!"  
"Brilliant idea! A invalid, a heavy injured and the lord of nerds against T.U.F.F.´s number one agent. We will totally win." Mocked Catastrophe.  
"But we have to try to save her!"

"Her? I doubt that she´s the one who has to be saved. I more worrying about Birdbrain."  
"The goals we have are convergent. You want to keep Birdbrain safe and I want to protect Kitty of herself." Explained Keswick ready for action.

"Frankly, we don´t want to safe Birdbrain." Remarked Rabies.  
"But you have to admit that we told Katswell his name." replied Catastrophe to him.  
"You don´t come up with this gangster codex shit, do you?"  
"Well you know how important the codex in this business."

"Codex?" Keswick was confused to hear something about honor from villains. That sounded like it was took out of these old gangster movies.  
"Yeah." Said Rabies rolling his eyes. "Stuff like. Don´t send each other to our dooms… Okay. Let´s safe this stupid blue-bottom booby."

The three rushed out of the room and left Dudley alone lying in his bed.  
"Finally alone… Maybe I can now catch some sleep."


	6. Who said that?

"Kitty!" called Keswick into the blue lighted hallways. A sinister silence was all around. A silence that you could describe best with the attribute calm, too calm. "Is that really the right location?"  
"80085 Evil Lair Hill. We´re in the right place… If the phonebook doesn´t lie." Meant Rabies from behind while he was rechecking the address on his smartphone.

"KITTY! Where are you?!" shouted Keswick again and then listened if there´s any response. From a door ahead of the little group there was an almost not recognizable whimper audible. It didn´t came from Kitty that was sure.

Keswick knew her voice quiet well and it just didn´t sound like that.  
"To the door, quick!" The group rushed to the door and burst it open. All three stumbled into the room and spotted Birdbrain lying motionless in a puddle of blood on the ground.

Beside him Zippy stood her hands folded. It seems that she prayed or administered the last rites to him.  
"I guess we´re too late." Summarized it Madam Catastrophe coldly.  
"Poor Birdbrain… But where is Katswell?"

"Katswell and the devil within her left after she finished her dark deed." Said Zippy with an unnaturally deep and demonic voice. So the question in arose if it was really Katswell who was possessed.  
"Okaaay…" replied Rabies with his eyes wide open and stepped with his arms in an anti escalation position away from her.

"Kitty!" Keswick ran out of the room back into the hallways to the exit. Outside of the building he repeated, standing in the beam of a small light hanging above the door, his helpless scream again. "KITTY! WHERE A..A..ARE YOU, GODDAMIT?!"

"I´m here." Answered a quiet voice from a trash can nearby. Keswick turned surprised to the can and walked around it. On the other side and hard to spot on the first sight Kitty sat leaning on the cold metal of the garbage can. She sat there staring on her hands with eyes full of self-loathing.

"Hey, K..K..Kitty." Began Keswick carefully. He saw how she felt and didn´t want make it worse.  
"Keswick. What have I done? I supposed to be a good one that is fighting the villains. I fall. I´m no more better than them. I became the worst of them."

"Kitty, just because you done these bad t..t..things it doesn´t make you a bad person."  
"What is the difference between good and bad then? What defines us? If not our deeds! TELL ME!"  
cried Kitty, tears began to roll down her face.  
"Good people have g..g..good intentions."  
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Meant Kitty bitterly.

Keswick knew that talking with Kitty was pointless at this point. He didn´t know what to say but he knew exactly what she needed now. He moved closer to her and hugged her. Kitty was really surprised by Keswick´s sudden kindness -he wasn´t the hug-guy- but didn´t refused a shoulder to lean on. "Kitty, it´s time that you v..v..visit him." Whispered Keswick in her ear and helped her on her feet.

With his hand clang to hers he dragged her towards the T.U.F.F. mobile. Like a child he sat her on the seat and fastened the seat belt. Then he sat down on the driver´s seat and drove towards the Petropolis hospital.

"You are a g..g..good person, Kitty. Never believe of s..s..something else." Keswick tried to start a conversation.  
"I killed Birdbrain! That´s all my fault. And I still don´t know who sent Dudley into that coma. I reached nothing. I´m nothing better than a psychopath."

Keswick gazed quickly at her. She just sat there and looked at her hands. He had to say something, anything that would distract her.  
"Snaptrap."  
"What?"

"Snaptrap, it was Snaptrap. We c..c..confiscated this earthquake machine a week before the incident. Three d..d..days later Snaptrap stole it."  
"What? Why haven´t you told me that right away?! Birdbrain would maybe alive then!" she shouted at him.

"So you really want to blame me?!" Anger and disbelieve was written in Keswick´s face. He didn´t want to let her blame him for the things she done. "Forget it! I wanted to p..p..protect you and protect him. I had no idea that you w..w..would kill everybody in your way. But I was sure that you w..w..would kill Snaptrap!"

"That will happen!" replied Kitty who already felt how the crowed of angry voices began to scream again.  
"Kitty I beg you. You a..a..already took one life. There´s no need to take another one! That w..w..won´t bring him back! And he also wouldn´t w..w..want that!"

"So I should let him get away with that? I should really get him away with killing Dudley?!" asked Kitty not understanding how she could do that.  
"Dudley isn´t d..d..dead. So show some mercy! It will may coast all of your strength to forgive but you know that the revenge will destroy you in the end."

Kitty knew that he was true so she tried to fight the anger choir down.  
As they arrived at the hospital they walked in and then over the long white hallways directly to room number 86. Keswick opened the door for Kitty to let her through but she stood there frozen. "Kitty, what´s w..w..wrong?"

"I don´t think that I can handle that. I have no idea what will happen if I see him, I mean…"  
Keswick had enough of her avoiding strategy. He grabbed her arm, pulled her into the room and shouted. "Jump in the r..r..river and learn to swim!"

Then he left the room as fast as he could and locked the door from the other side with a chair so Kitty couldn´t evade from that important talk.  
"Keswick! Let me out of her!" She said bagging anxiously at the door. But she didn´t receive an answer. Probably Keswick was laughing into his sleeve on the other side of the door.

"Oh Kitty! You´re finally here! Awesome!" said Dudley excited in his mind. He had jumped in the air if there wasn´t this stupid coma.  
Slowly and with her eyes closed Kitty turned towards Dudley. She took one deep breath to get ready before she opened them.

"Oh Dudley." She exclaimed shocked by Dudley´s sight. And she not even saw the missing of the arm because it was under the cover. She stepped close to his bed and laid her hand carefully on his chest. Kitty felt his heart beating and Dudley could feel the warmth of her small hand that spread in his body from this spot.

"Dudley… I´m sorry that I couldn´t visit you until now. I just… had some work to do." Kitty took her hand away from his chest and giggled bitterly. "Why do I lie to you. I didn´t came because I thought that I couldn´t stand seeing you. And I´m right. It makes me crazy to see you like that. It..it.. says me 'he´s lying here because you were too stupid to run out of this building.' And it´s true."

"Kitty it wasn´t your fault!" liked Dudley to say but he couldn´t.  
"Dudley…" Kitty moved her lips towards his forehead and kissed him. "You maybe can´t hear me but… I love you too. Please wake up."

The corners of Dudley´s mouth twitched slightly. And that was what the reaction that came to the external world. In his internal coma world he laughed, he jumped up and down, he ran in circles… just because he was so happy. "That is a really great day… It would be the best day if I would also wake up."

"Well Dudley I… wait." Kitty finally recognized that something was wrong with Dudley´s left arm. She removed the cover and gazed unbelieving at stump which was wrapped into a blood soaked bandage.

"What… Why…" Anger rose in her by seeing that arm. Her inner voice of reason was drowned down by the headless crowed that claimed revenge. It was no longer a harmonic choir. "Vendetta, Vendetta." The thousands of voices screamed.

"He´ll pay for that. I promise you Dudley." Kitty forced the looked door open, knocked Keswick over with the door and out of the room. Dudley was alone again.  
"She will kill Snaptrap! I have to wake up. I have to prevent her from doing something she might regret. But How?"  
"Maybe I can help with that?" a voice suddenly said.  
"Who said that?!"


	7. How about Saturday?

"I ask again, who said that?!" Dudley was amazed. Was that a dream or did somebody really talk to him? Did somebody really answer him?  
"That was me." Said a dark demonic voice like it was the most normal thing in the world to talk to somebody in a deep coma.

"And before you ask , my name does not matter. All of our names do not matter."  
"Well…okay. At least I have finally somebody I can talk to."  
"You will have much time to talk. Soon." Another voice suddenly began to speak.

"Yes, much time. Soon." The first voice confirmed.  
"Soon" the two voices said now at the same time.  
"Okay folks, that´s creepy… what´s going on here?"

"The process." A female voice added her voice to the others.  
"Yes, the process." The other voices hissed in unison.  
"The process?" Dudley couldn´t be more confused. The whole conversation had somehow no sense.

"Time to go. Soon. The process." The first voice said while the second and the female voice began to sing in the background "Time, soon, process! Time, soon, process!" accompanied by drumbeats on every word.

"Wait from who´s playing these drums?"  
"TIME, SOON, PROCESS! TIME, SOON, PROCESS!" the two voices almost screamed at him.  
"What does that mean? Am I going to die?" Dudley asked nervously and intimidated by the voices.

"Ask your friend. He will know. And do not come too late! Nothing shall vanish today."  
The other two voices stopped singing for a second and repeated "Today!" Then they continued chant.

Dudley couldn´t express his confusion in words and if he had the chance to move the muscles in his face he would just contort them all. "Uhm… Am I getting crazy?"  
The two voices stopped singing and said together with the first voice insistently. "YES!"

Dudley sat up drenched in sweat in his hospital bed and began retching. He still had the tube for the stomach probe in his throat. With the arm that still had a hand he pulled the tube out of his mouth.  
"Disgusting." He croaked out of his sore throat.

As he stopped retching he looked at the stump on his left arm. "I´m awake!" he exclaimed happily. "I´m missing an arm but f*ck that! I´m awake!"  
"Dudley! You´re a..a..awake?!" Keswick who regained his consciousness after getting hit by the door rushed to Dudley´s bed.

"Yes, I know." Replied Dudley with a ridiculously high voice.  
"That´s… awesome. I always b..b..believed that you would wake up. You have to know that I was here every d..d..day and visited you." explained Keswick to him.

"I know." Meant Dudley clearing his throat. "I overheard everything. Thanks to you I know how to water my rhododendron… Boy, that was really boring but nevertheless thank you."  
"Really that is of course s..s..scientific…"

"Yeah whatever." Interjected Dudley before Keswick would start one of his famous monologues. "I need to know something. I know that Snaptrap did that to me and I know that Kitty is on her way to him. But what I don´t know is where Snaptrap is."

"Please don't t..t..tell me that that you are also on this r..r..revenge trip!"  
"No!" replied Dudley firmly. "I wanted to prevent Kitty from doing something bad to Snaptrap."  
"Okay, that´s of course n..n..noble but why?"

"Because this is all my fault!"  
"What?! Why?" Keswick stepped confused away from him.  
"No time to explain! Just tell me everything what´s necessary, but fast!"

This question also preoccupied Kitty. She drove to D.O.O.M but didn´t find Snaptrap there, just Larry sitting on a chair beside the shark tank with fishing rod on which a steak was fixed. He was making fun of the sharks by pulling the rod up every time when a shark was trying to catch the steak.

"Stupid sharks!" he laughed at them without seeing Kitty entering the HQ. She sneaked up to him, grabbed him by the collar and held him over the shark tank.  
"Tell me, where is Snaptrap." Kitty said curtly.

"Do you really think that you can scare me with the stupid shark tank? Do you have any idea how often I was in that thing? I know every shark by his name." replied Larry with a really bored expression on his face.

"Oh, believe me that was just the start." Kitty took some of the fishing line from the rod and tied Larry to the chair. "Good that you bought the extra tear resistant one."  
"Well, when the sharks get the steak they really pull hard." Larry stayed calm all the time even as Kitty began to drag the chair up to the roof of the building.

But as he was up there and the cold wind blew around his nose he began to ask himself what she was up to. And as Kitty put the chair with the back close towards the edge of the building he was getting also kind of nervous. "Would you be so kindly to tell me what you are up to?" he finally manifested his nervousness in a sentence.

"Back then in Vietnam-war the troops there developed a special interrogation tactic. You took the two suspects and put them into a helicopter. With that helicopter they hovered maybe 15 or 20 meter over the ground. There they began with the interrogation.

The two of them got the same questions. The one who was less cooperative by every question got pushed a little closer to the edge. Until one of them got the final push. The funny fact was that no matter who fell towards the ground in the end the other one always talked." Kitty told this little anecdote with a disgusting smile.

"Well, That is a problem Katswell. I´m alone."  
"I first thought that too. But then I realized that it doesn´t matter. If you won´t talk the others will talk after I showed them the rest what´s left of you after you… hit the floor."

Larry realized the logic that was behind Kitty´s argument and that made his nervousness to panic. But he still wasn´t willing to tell her anything. "You don´t dare to push me from the edge!"  
"Really." Kitty turned Larry around so that he could see the lights of the city. Petropolis by night was always a great view but not if you about to get pushed from the building.

"Katswell… uhm…"  
"Yes?" Kitty just finished doing something on the lean of the chair, maybe checking the line so he couldn´t escape.  
"Nothing."

"Okay." She just meant and pushed the chair closer to the edge. "Do you still don´t want to talk?"  
"Yes!"  
"Okay." She repeated and pushed the chair again closer to the abyss.

The next push would send him immediately towards the ground. Larry was now able to see the sidewalk under him and that was kind of persuasive for him.  
"It´s okay Katswell. I´ll tell you where he is. Just please don´t push me down there!"

"I think it´s too late, Larry. I expect more cooperation form the people I interrogate." She said baldy and kicked Larry over the edge. "Nooooo!" screamed Larry as he was falling. Kitty just giggled and walked to the stairway. At a leisurely pace she strutted down the stairs, through the entrance hall and outside the building.

There on the façade, circa in the height of Kitty´s head, dangled the chair with Larry on it on the thin fishing line. Kitty stepped directly in front of him and grinned into his face which was white of the shock. "As I said, good that you bought the extra tear resistant one."

"Oh my god, I think I had one of these near death experiences. I saw my whole life passed by in front of my eyes." He coughed and breathed heavily. "And it was boring!" he added.  
"Well sorry, but if you don´t want to see the most boring movie again you better tell me where Snaptrap is."  
"Katswell your just sick!"

"I see that as a compliment… By the way, I would really recommend to you that you talk now. I don´t know if the fishing line can make another fall without ripping but of course we can always…"  
"Okay okay okay!" Interjected Larry fast. "I´ll tell you and that will surprise you."  
"I´m listening attentively."

"Snaptrap searched for the best place to hide from you and then he had a really brilliant idea. There is no better place to hide from you than right under your nose."  
"What do you mean with that?" Kitty was really interested what would come now.

"He hid in your apartment! Ha! I still can´t believe that this was his idea! I guess you weren´t in your apartment since you searched for the culprit?"  
"IN MY APARTMENT?!" She shouted. "Good, now I have two reasons to kill him!" Kitty turned around and tramped angry away from the hanging Larry who screamed after her.

"HEY! DON´T LEAVE ME HANGING HERE!"  
Kitty ignored that. "Some will come sooner or later and cut him loose" she thought and jumped into the T.U.F.F. car. Snaptrap´s idea of hiding in her apartment maybe was a pretty good one but he forgot one important thing. Kitty had a key to his hiding place.

And now that she knew where he was it was just a matter of time till she added some bullets to his inner organs. She steered the car to her building and parked near the entrance. It was in the parking ban but that wasn´t important for her.

She jumped out of the car and ran up the stairs. The elevator would be too slow. In front of her door she pulled out her keys and her gun. She rushed into the apartment and caught Snaptrap sitting in front of the T.V. in her pink bathrobe. "Freeze!"

"Damn, I´m watching… Oh agent Katswell…" the anger he first had in his voice yield immediately as he saw Kitty pointing with her gun at him.  
"Finally" laughed Kitty released. "Finally I found you. You wouldn´t believe what I done to found you.

I threatened, I hurt, I even killed. Just to have some time alone with you." She laughed like she was crazy what made Snaptrap walking away from her backwards. She followed him with her gun aiming on his chest. "But before I knock your light out, before I watch how the life will vanish from your body, I want to give you the chance to justify yourself. So why did you sent Dudley into that coma?"

"I…" Snaptrap sighed exhausted like finally some heavy weight fell from his heart. "I, didn´t want that. You have to believe me. It really wasn´t my intention to hurt anyone."  
"Sure." Sneered Kitty.

"Seriously, I didn´t want that! I just want to destroy the house. I thought that anybody would be in the garden, at the party."  
"Fast Snaptrap, come to the reason with that you want to justify what you done. My trigger finger is itching." She meant impatiently.

"My motive was anger. I was angry because I wasn´t invited to the party."  
"WHAT?!" Kitty hadn´t expected such a crummy motive what made her even angrier. "You just done that because you weren´t invited to this stupid party?" Kitty jumped on Snaptrap what sweeped him of his feet.

Triumphing she stood with a foot on his chest and her gun pointing at his heart above him.  
"Pull the trigger. I´m just happy this hunt ends. I´m just to tired."  
"You´ll have enough time to sleep soon!" Kitty led her finger slowly to the trigger and was about to pull as someone behind her suddenly screamed.

"STOP IT!"  
Kitty turned her head around and looked into Dudley´s blue eyes who stood also with a gun in his hand in the door.  
"Dudley?!" Kitty was so surprised that she sank her gun. Dudley was the last one she had expected.

"Kitty lay down that gun. Everything is okay."  
"You´re alive?!"  
"Yes. But put down the gun! And leave Snaptrap alone." Said Dudley calmly.

"How could I? Can´t you see what he done to you?! Just look at your arm!"  
"That doesn´t matter for me."  
"How? How could that not matter to you?! It´s all his fault!" asked Kitty unbelieving.

"It isn´t, to be honest it´s my fault. Snaptrap…" Dudley began to address Snaptrap. "I was the one who wrote that fake card to my mom about you having kidney stones."  
"You were that?" panted Snaptrap who´s air was pressed out of his chest by Kitty´s boot.  
"That doesn´t matter for me. That is still no motive to destroy a house and sent someone into a coma!" deemed Kitty furiously.

"But is revenge a good reason to kill someone? Keswick told me before I came here what you done to Birdbrain. Kitty you have to stop this. Being angry on someone is like drinking poison and then expecting the other person to die! You have to stop this, NOW!"

"I can´t stop now! I have to end this." Kitty raised the gun in her hand again and aimed at Snaptrap´s head.  
"You don´t leave another choice to me!" Also Dudley raised his gun but instead of pointing it on Kitty or Snaptrap he pressed it on his own head.

"You don´t do that!"  
"Maybe I´m supposed to be dead. Should I stand in the way of destiny´s plan?"  
Kitty turned her head away from Dudley and looked into Snaptrap´s tired eyes until the sound of a shot made her spun around.

Dudley still stood there and pointed with his gun at the ceiling. He didn´t shot himself, just in the ceiling.  
"Kitty, believe me. The next time I´ll hit my aim."  
"Dudley don´t do that!" Kitty put her gun down and walked away from Snaptrap. Dudley´s determination convinced her. He really managed it to turn the tables. Now Kitty had to play the rational, a role that suits much better to her.

"Kitty, answer me that one question."  
"Okay, but stay cool." She said with her hands in front of her trying to persuade him to put the gun down.  
"How about Saturday?"  
"What?!"

"Cinema. Saturday. You and me. A date. What do you think?" Dudley looked into Kitty´s confused eyes and waited for an answer.  
"Yes, but just don´t shoot yourself."

Dudley threw his gun to the ground and hugged Kitty. "It´s over."  
Kitty returned Dudley´s hug and felt released. The crowed of angry voices in her head disappeared and all the anger fall of her. Dudley was right, it was over.

**-There will be one last chapter after that and I hope it will clear all the questions in the reviews in explicit and implicit ways :D-**


	8. I m the better person

Two weeks after the incident in Kitty´s apartment, the situation has calmed down. Kitty and Dudley thought after a very successful Cinema visit and an also quite pleasant next morning that they should waste no more time. Kitty had a big empty apartment and Dudley needed to get out of his mother´s house.

Mainly because his mother has got more overprotective, however that was even possible. It made Dudley paranoid how she snooped around. He also had the suspicion that his mother chipped him. He sometimes heard these electrical discharging sounds and when he walked through a metal detector it always beeped the hell out of him.

The releasing moment when he stepped over threshold of Kitty´s and now also his apartment he would never forget. He balanced a brown cardboard box with his guitar in it on his right arm which was also the one that was left. "Don´t dare playing this thing in here. My landlord will kill me." Ordered Kitty as she saw it. Dudley answered this just by giving her the 'are you kidding me' look and raising his left arm.

The arm. That was a tiresome issue. It was really hard to get used to have just one useable arm. Ordinary things like driving a car, climbing up a ladder or just tying up shoelace became significantly harder. Dudley thought that he would have to get used to it but then Keswick walked up to him and presented him a possible, but for Dudley strange solution.

"Dudley, I need your DNA!"  
"Uhm… Why?" asked Dudley confused because Keswick came out of nothing with that question.  
"Well, Science! I thought a bit about your s..s..situation and saw an opportunity to give you your arm back. We will use some adult stem cells from the chameleon´s tail.

But before you f..f..freak out, everybody has adult stem cells for example in the bone marrow. I won´t s..s..slaughter an embryo just because of your arm. Anyway, adult stem c..c..cells are less controllable but when I take some out of the chameleon´s tail, which can grow again, and c..c..combine these cells with some out of your arm it could be possible that I can grow you a new arm.

In the lab first of course but when it reached it full size we can t..t..transplant it. Luckily the Chameleon was so nice to donate some cells… okay I stole them as he slept. But, what do you think?!"  
Of course Dudley agreed with that idea. And he also saw his little new arm in a giant incubator.

It had the size of a hotdog yet but it grew fast. Soon Dudley would be in this hospital again, in the same operation room where a surgeon will try to attach his arm on him again. That was maybe the first surgery Dudley was looking forward to.

Kitty had to take the responsibility for Birdbrains death and the T.U.F.F. supreme command still hadn´t finished its investigations. But by seeing the psychological circumstance she was in that time she will maybe be seen as certifiable.

However her promotion to the new chief receded into the distance. So Dudley was forced to clean up somebody else´s mess after one of these finance meetings. Snaptrap was gone since these two weeks. He maybe had to calm down and went on vacation or something, no one knew.

The strange Doctor, Amid Savors, disappeared the day Dudley woke up from his coma. Dudley searched for him but as he asked around in the hospital they assured him that there was never a doctor called Savors. The whole thing was strange and Dudley couldn´t stop thinking about it.  
But on this day, two weeks after the incident, something else was on his mind and on Kitty´s too.

"Does my tie knot really fit?" Dudley asked Kitty jittery after they got out of the car. Both of them where well dressed. Dudley in a black suit -with pants!- and Kitty in a black dress.  
"Yes, it does." Confirmed Kitty with slight nervousness in her tone. "Let´s go now the view point is not far away from here."

Both got wordless on their way over a small brown steed well-trodden path that lead to the view point ocean´s breath which was called like that because of the winds that blew back and forth. It really felt like the ocean would breathe directly into your face up there on the cliff.

"Kitty, you know that you don´t have to be here. I mean you paid for the whole thing. No one would forces you to be there and I think that they would actually be happy if you don´t come." Dudley tried to persuade her to go. He already could imagine how the whole event will be like. A lot of angry eyes looking at Kitty.

"That is no question of willing or not willing. It´s just something I have to do. If not for him at least for myself."  
A few more steps over a little brow and they were there. And like Dudley had prophesied it a lot of angry eyes were pinned on Kitty. It was like their eyes were heat-seeking and she was the only heat source in the surrounding area.

But of course it is extremely unusually that the killer comes to the funeral of its victim. Madam Catastrophe and Doctor Rabies finally stepped out of the crowed and built themselves up in front of them. "You really valiant, I have to admit." Catastrophe said propped on a stick which was decorated with flamboyant carvings. "And I really give you credit that you pay the whole thing here but I´m still angry about the thing with my knee."

"Yes, me too. You better enjoy this little ceasefire today. Tomorrow we are enemies again." Added Rabies.  
"I thought you two wanted to retire."  
"Oh, we´ll do later. But for you Katswell we renew our working contract." With these words the two turned around and walked back into the crowed.

The next one who stepped in front of Dudley and Kitty was the Chameleon. Unlike Catastrophe and Rabies he eyed Dudley angry. "I hope you know that my ass still hurts…" The chameleon briefly gazed around confused by his own words.

"I hope you know how wrong that sounded?" retorted Dudley while a questioning glare of Kitty was torturing him.  
"Yes. And I hope you know that I just mean the cells from my tail that your friend Keswick stole as I slept peacefully?"

"Yes."  
"Then I think this issue is resolved." With an awkward feeling the Chameleon turned around and yield for Snaptrap who also wanted to talk to them.  
"Thanks. Kitty, Dudley. I just want to say thanks for sparing my life. We all know that I had deserved to die." His voice sounded tired but somehow thankful and happy.

"No one deserves that. But just do me one favor. Next time when you destroy a building make sure that nobody is in it… Unless you want to kill the person." Replied Dudley and patted Snaptrap´s shoulder. "Now let´s just not talk about this again. It was my fault and also your fault.

Let´s rather go to the buffet over there." The three began to move but before they reached the table which was laid with plenty of food Dudley turned around and stopped Kitty. "I think there is someone you should talk to." He pointed at Zippy who stood on a small clay pot and watched how surf whipped against the rocks.

Kitty stepped beside her and joined watching. A long time they said nothing until Zippy raised her voice.  
"He was misunderstood, you know?"  
"Hm?"

"Birdbrain. He never wanted to be a criminal master mind. At least that´s what he told me once. The only thing he wanted was to fly. He had a goal, like you."  
"But his goal was a dream and my goal was just revenge." Meant Kitty.

"Yeah… Strange isn´t it? Shouldn´t it be you who is hunting behind dreams and Birdbrain, the alleged bad guy, the one who has the lower motive? … The world isn´t just black and white." Zippy gazed with a slight smile towards the sun which just touched the surface of the ocean.

"Zippy, why are you so calm? Why are you not…"  
"More like you?" completed Zippy. "Trying to have my revenge no matter what it cost? Well, look where the revenge brought us. Someone died. I don´t want that someone dies again. But also because I would be afraid.

Afraid of what happens afterwards. Violence always breeds more violence. And what would happen to me? Vengeance is always just a way to fill an emptiness in yourself. If you fulfilled it you´re left with nothing."

"But don´t you feel anything if you see me? Do you really let go all your anger."  
"Yep. I´m free. Just if you freed yourself from everything you can be free to do everything."  
"I can´t even imagine that." Admitted Kitty amazed.

"Maybe I can because I´m the better person." Zippy grinned at Kitty widely. "Now please excuse me, there´s something left for me to do." She grabbed the clay pot with her claws and raised herself high up into the air. A few meters from the cliff away but not too far away that nobody could hear her she began with her speech.

"Friends and guest. I´m as well happy as sad that we had to come together on this day. Sad because of the obvious. We all lost someone who was at least someone we knew. And for others of course more than just that. But I´m also happy to see so many people here who really care about early decease of Birdbrain. So, let us not mourn the loss of Birdbrain let us instead commemorate the life Birdbrain had."

Zippy opened the pot and paused until the wind turned and blew towards the ocean. "His greatest dream was to fly. I know that this isn´t the same, but it´s close to it." She scattered the ash into the wind which immediately carried it away. It looked like the rests of Birdbrain were blown into the sun.

In a strange way this was for all watchers as well reassuring as touching. It left a good feeling.  
Dudley laid his hand on Kitty´s shoulder and said. "A really beautiful funeral. If I die first please take care that mine is going to be as neat as this one."

"Please don´t say that!"  
"Why? We all have to die. Life is just the time which we spent between birth and death. So… do you have a better idea how to spend this time?"  
"I have." Kitty pulled Dudley towards him and kissed him.

**-The End-**

**-Well, that´s all for the moment. I know the story was a bit shorter than the last ones but I had really fun to write it. Thanks to lunar silver again for the idea.-**


End file.
